Sounds Like Canada

Shelagh Rogers I have listened to dribs and drabs of the new CBC Radio One programme Sounds Like Canada and I like what I’m hearing.

The show’s greatest accomplishment? Leaving the legacy of Peter Gzowski aside and cutting a new path.

The show’s post-Gzowski predecessor, This Morning tried to be Morningside with a new theme song and different hosts. It thrashed around, but never found focus or comfort.

What is ironic is that Sounds Like Canada is hosted by Shelagh Rogers, the presenter perhaps most associated with the Gzowski era; perhaps it took a member of the family to throw away the past and come up with something new.

The show is not without its problems: the whole “let’s put our ear up to the wall of Canada” metaphor is apt to run its course eventually (I hope). After all, one can only “listen in on the grade 3 class in Owen Sound making pumpkin pie” for so long before it ceases to be interesting. If it ever was.

And there’s a disappointing holdover of features from the old era: the “franco-Canada for anglos” segment C’est La Vie ceased to be interesting long ago; holdovers like the children’s book panel, while perhaps inevitable given their popularity, seem out of place and tired.

The highlights: Rogers out in the country interviewing people on the ground; the financial affairs mini-show That’s Capital and the cooking/food segment Consicencious Kitchen; and the new segment The Listening Room, promoted this week and starting next, which promises to be the first regular incursion of radio art to reach a national audience, ever.

It’s hard to be a regular listener: my day doesn’t start until the show is well underway, and it’s hard to be a deliberate listener when working, but I’ll tune in as often as possible.

Comments

Ritchie Simpson's picture
Ritchie Simpson on December 6, 2002 - 13:18 Permalink

I’m having a lot of trouble adjusting to the new formats on CBC Radio (national), I’m ok with C’est la Vie (it’s Chez Helene with pretensions) but Workology either bores me to tears or aggravates the bejeebers out of me depending on my level of resignation. Sook yin Lee was cool on MM but hasn’t enough presence (to my mind) I’m still waiting for her to get out of Winnipeg.
Wether its a week-day morning or almost any time on the weekend I’m not excited, happy or even comfortable with the new shows, the new focus, or many of the new jocks.

Alan's picture
Alan on December 6, 2002 - 14:49 Permalink

Ha! good CH reference — so true. What concerns me is the use of so many packaged sub-segments that seem primarily structured to serve as repeats next summer. What I like is the separation of the light after ten from the news before ten. One of the uncomfortable things about the three hour show was the mixture. A panel of children’s books following a documentary about land mines.

Jim Williams's picture
Jim Williams on September 17, 2005 - 20:58 Permalink

To Shelagh Rogers: One day this week on your show Sounds like Canada, you were interviewing Seniors across Canada regarding retirement. One of those individuals you interviewed was a chap from Vancouver area. He had a book out on his thoughts about getting ready to retire. Could you pleaser give me his name and the title of his book. Thank you Jim Williams a listener at the cottage on the lower French River in Ontario

Jackie Powell's picture
Jackie Powell on October 4, 2005 - 18:07 Permalink

Looking for recipies on Buck wheat. Margarete Dickenson’s Queen of Buckwheat Ambasidors table? Heard on Sounds like Canada and can’t locate free recipies to try. Help?//Thanks Jackie